5 soldiers and veterans told us why they pledged to protect a young, scared Muslim girl.

Nominate an empowered woman in your life and Tory Burch may donate $5,000 to the nonprofit of her choice.

    
Explore

5 soldiers and veterans told us why they pledged to protect a young, scared Muslim girl.

For the past two weeks, veterans and active military men and women from around the world have been posting photos of themselves on social media with the hashtag #iwillprotectyou.

The campaign, which began with a single Facebook post from Army veteran Kerri Peek, was launched in support of Sofia Yassini, an 8-year-old Muslim-American girl from Texas, who — after watching Donald Trump on TV call for banning Muslims from entering the U.S. — got scared that the military was going to come and kick her and her family out of the country.

"It was the first time that it really drove home to me that we’re in a dangerous place right now," Sofia's mother Melissa Yassini — who works with the Islamic Association of North Texas — told Upworthy.

Since Peek's hashtag went viral, hundreds of veterans and active duty military members have contacted the Yassinis to express their support, according to Melissa.

Upworthy contacted five of them and asked them why they chose to reach out to Sofia.

Here's what they told us, in their own words (many of those who are currently serving noted that they are speaking for themselves only, and not the U.S. military):

Sgt. Amanda Hils

"The idea that a child would be scared in our own [country], of our own military, is not something I'm comfortable with," Hils told Upworthy.

Hils, who was deployed in Afghanistan in 2011-12, recalled feeling heartbroken that any American child would view her fellow service members as a threat. While many veterans and active military men and women wrote messages, Hils felt it was important to show Sofia what it looks like to have a woman in uniform looking out for her.

"If she's able to put faces to that sentiment, I think that's great."

Above all else, she believes speaking out was the right — and necessary — thing to do, and that the man in charge would agree.

"At the very least, I'm echoing the sentiments of our commander-in-chief. He's made it very clear: Muslims are not our enemy."

Sherman Hardy

"The more fear grows, and the stronger it gets, the easier it is to overshadow everything," Hardy, an Air Force veteran who served as a military policeman in Wyoming and Korea, told Upworthy.

According to Hardy, growing up African-American left him all-too-familiar with how harmful — and deeply, emotionally wounding — some stereotypes can be and how it can often be difficult not to carry them through life. The notion that Muslims are dangerous — and that non-Muslims should fear them — hits Hardy the same way.

"Once you're labeled something, you begin to think, 'OK, is there any truth to this?' You have to question yourself, and be stronger than that, and know, 'OK, that's not who I am.'"

That's why, for Hardy, the decision to support Sofia and her mom is not just an obligation that comes along with having served.

"I think it's an American duty," he said.

Lt. Cmdr. Montel Williams (retired)

"Were anyone to try to force your daughter, an American citizen, to leave this country on the basis of her faith, my oath would require me to act," the talk show host wrote on Facebook.

Unbeknownst to many who watch him on TV, Williams served 22 years between the Marines and the Navy — retiring with the rank of lieutenant commander — and remains an active, vocal supporter of veterans' causes to this day.

Yes, that's Montel Williams. Photo via Montel Williams/Facebook., used with permission.

"Members of the military aren't given a choice who they protect, of what faith, what race, what sexual orientation, whatever," Jonathan Franks, a spokesperson for Williams told Upworthy.

According to Franks, Williams is heavily involved with a campaign to secure the release of Amir Hekmati — an American citizen currently being held in Iran — and believes anti-Muslim bigotry from Donald Trump and others shows the kind of distrust that makes progress on such issues difficult.

"We're not going to solve a whole lot of problems by alienating people in the Muslim community," Franks said.

Patrick Brandt

"No one will be coming for you, so long as I breathe," Brandt, a former paratrooper who served two tours in Iraq, wrote on Facebook.

Photo by Patrick Brandt/Facebook, used with permission.

In addition to showing Sofia support, Brandt was moved to post #iwillprotectyou to help rebuke the Islamophobic sentiments that he believes are distressingly common among some of his fellow veterans.

"I'm not saying all vets are represented in that group, maybe not even most of them," Brandt told Upworthy, "But [that] crowd is certainly the loudest on social media it seems to me."

The message Brandt hopes to send his comrades-in-arms?

"I want them to know that I see the Islamophobic movements that are happening in our nation are in direct conflict with the ideals of USA," Brandt told Upworthy. "Not only will I physically defend my brothers and sisters if it comes down to that, but I will proactively step up and be a voice of compassion to my peers."

Lt. Cristina Trecate

"When you're eight years old, that shouldn't be something you're scared about," Trecate told Upworthy. "You should probably be scared about when your crayon breaks, what color you're going to use next, not being kicked out of your home."

Trecate enlisted in the New Jersey National Guard at 19 and spent her early service as a truck driver before heading to college and receiving an officer's commission. Now a field artillery officer in the Pennsylvania National Guard, she emphasized that her duty is to protect all Americans.

"I would just want her to know that she shouldn't be afraid," Trecate said. "She can feel safe at night, knowing that there are hundreds of thousands of people, clearly, who are willing to protect her and be there for her and defend her."

More than anything, Trecate wants Sofia to know that she'll never be kicked out of her home, no matter what.

"None of us are going to let that happen."

Melissa told Upworthy she feels honored a campaign her daughter inspired has touched so many people, and she has made it a point to respond to as many as she can.

"I'm always a believer that love wins over evil and hate, and it does every time," Melissa said.

For Melissa, the best evidence is that Sofia has gone back to being a normal 8-year-old girl.

"One day she just said, 'Mommy, I'm not worried anymore,'" Melissa said.

Tory Burch

Tory Burch Empowered Women

popular

This woman found out shelters in LA don't accept women with teen boys. So she made sure hers did.

True

Judy Vaughan has spent most of her life helping other women, first as the director of House of Ruth, a safe haven for homeless families in East Los Angeles, and later as the Project Coordinator for Women for Guatemala, a solidarity organization committed to raising awareness about human rights abuses.

But in 1996, she decided to take things a step further. A house became available in the mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles and she was offered the opportunity to use it to help other women and children. So, in partnership with a group of 13 people who she knew from her years of activism, she decided to make it a transitional residence program for homeless women and their children. They called the program Alexandria House.

"I had learned from House of Ruth that families who are homeless are often isolated from the surrounding community," Judy says. "So we decided that as part of our mission, we would also be a neighborhood center and offer a number of resources and programs, including an after-school program and ESL classes."

She also decided that, unlike many other shelters in Los Angeles, she would accept mothers with their teenage boys.

"There are very few in Los Angeles [that do] due to what are considered liability issues," Judy explains. "Given the fact that there are (conservatively) 56,000 homeless people and only about 11,000 shelter beds on any one night, agencies can be selective on who they take."

Their Board of Directors had already determined that they should take families that would have difficulties finding a place. Some of these challenges include families with more than two children, immigrant families without legal documents, moms who are pregnant with other small children, families with a member who has a disability [and] families with service dogs.

"Being separated from your son or sons, especially in the early teen years, just adds to the stress that moms who are unhoused are already experiencing," Judy says.

"We were determined to offer women with teenage boys another choice."

Courtesy of Judy Vaughan

Alexandria House also doesn't kick boys out when they turn 18. For example, Judy says they currently have a mom with two daughters (21 and 2) and a son who just turned 18. The family had struggled to find a shelter that would take them all together, and once they found Alexandria House, they worried the boy would be kicked out on his 18th birthday. But, says Judy, "we were not going to ask him to leave because of his age."

Homelessness is a big issue in Los Angeles. "[It] is considered the homeless capital of the United States," Judy says. "The numbers have not changed significantly since 1984 when I was working at the House of Ruth." The COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded the problem. According to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), over 66,000 people in the greater Los Angeles area were experiencing homelessness in 2020, representing a rise of 12.7% compared with the year before.

Each woman who comes to Alexandria House has her own unique story, but some common reasons for ending up homeless include fleeing from a domestic violence or human trafficking situation, aging out of foster care and having no place to go, being priced out of an apartment, losing a job, or experiencing a family emergency with no 'cushion' to pay the rent.

"Homelessness is not a definition; it is a situation that a person finds themselves in, and in fact, it can happen to almost anyone. There are many practices and policies that make it almost impossible to break out of poverty and move out of homelessness."

And that's why Alexandria House exists: to help them move out of it. How long that takes depends on the woman, but according to Judy, families stay an average of 10 months. During that time, the women meet with support staff to identify needs and goals and put a plan of action in place.

A number of services are provided, including free childcare, programs and mentoring for school-age children, free mental health counseling, financial literacy classes and a savings program. They have also started Step Up Sisterhood LA, an entrepreneurial program to support women's dreams of starting their own businesses. "We serve as a support system for as long as a family would like," Judy says, even after they have moved on.

And so far, the program is a resounding success.

92 percent of the 200 families who stayed at Alexandria House have found financial stability and permanent housing — not becoming homeless again.

Since founding Alexandria House 25 years ago, Judy has never lost sight of her mission to join with others and create a vision of a more just society and community. That is why she is one of Tory Burch's Empowered Women this year — and the donation she receives as a nominee will go to Alexandria House and will help grow the new Start-up Sisterhood LA program.

"Alexandria House is such an important part of my life," says Judy. "It has been amazing to watch the children grow up and the moms recreate their lives for themselves and for their families. I have witnessed resiliency, courage, and heroic acts of generosity."

From Your Site Articles

Bobcat expert explains the totally bonkers video of suburban attack everyone is watching

@Evi3Zamora/Twitter

When "bobcat" trended on Twitter this week, no one anticipated the unreal series of events they were about to witness. The bizarre bobcat encounter was captured on a security cam video and...well...you just have to see it. (Read the following description if you want to be prepared, or skip down to the video if you want to be surprised. I promise, it's a wild ride either way.)

In a North Carolina neighborhood that looks like a present-day Pleasantville, a man carries a cup of coffee and a plate of brownies out to his car. "Good mornin!" he calls cheerfully to a neighbor jogging by. As he sets his coffee cup on the hood of the car, he says, "I need to wash my car." Well, shucks. His wife enters the camera frame on the other side of the car.

So far, it's just about the most classic modern Americana scene imaginable. And then...

A horrifying "rrrrawwwww!" Blood-curdling screaming. Running. Panic. The man abandons the brownies, races to his wife's side of the car, then emerges with an animal in his hands. He holds the creature up like Rafiki holding up Simba, then yells in its face, "Oh my god! It's a bobcat! Oh my god!"

Then he hucks the bobcat across the yard with all his might.

Keep Reading Show less

animals

Pfizer

#ScienceWillWin

We asked three people about how vaccines have impacted their lives. Here’s what they said.

Images courtesy of John Scully, Walden University, Ingrid Scully

True

Since March of 2020, over 29 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the CDC. Over 540,000 have died in the United States as this unprecedented pandemic has swept the globe. And yet, by the end of 2020, it looked like science was winning: vaccines had been developed.

In celebration of the power of science we spoke to three people: an individual, a medical provider, and a vaccine scientist about how vaccines have impacted them throughout their lives. Here are their answers:

John Scully, 79, resident of Florida

Photo courtesy of John Scully

When John Scully was born, America was in the midst of an epidemic: tens of thousands of children in the United States were falling ill with paralytic poliomyelitis — otherwise known as polio, a disease that attacks the central nervous system and often leaves its victims partially or fully paralyzed.

"As kids, we were all afraid of getting polio," he says, "because if you got polio, you could end up in the dreaded iron lung and we were all terrified of those." Iron lungs were respirators that enclosed most of a person's body; people with severe cases often would end up in these respirators as they fought for their lives.

John remembers going to see matinee showings of cowboy movies on Saturdays and, before the movie, shorts would run. "Usually they showed the news," he says, "but I just remember seeing this one clip warning us about polio and it just showed all these kids in iron lungs." If kids survived the iron lung, they'd often come back to school on crutches, in leg braces, or in wheelchairs.

"We all tried to be really careful in the summer — or, as we called it back then, 'polio season,''" John says. This was because every year around Memorial Day, major outbreaks would begin to emerge and they'd spike sometime around August. People weren't really sure how the disease spread at the time, but many believed it traveled through the water. There was no cure — and every child was susceptible to getting sick with it.

"We couldn't swim in hot weather," he remembers, "and the municipal outdoor pool would close down in August."

Then, in 1954 clinical trials began for Dr. Jonas Salk's vaccine against polio and within a year, his vaccine was announced safe. "I got that vaccine at school," John says. Within two years, U.S. polio cases had dropped 85-95 percent — even before a second vaccine was developed by Dr. Albert Sabin in the 1960s. "I remember how much better things got after the vaccines came out. They changed everything," John says.

Keep Reading Show less

science